University of Illinois: No-clout rules get their first test

Outside meddlers barred as first admissions deadline nears

New University of Illinois policies aimed at keeping clout out of admissions face their first test starting next week.

The first application deadline of the year is Monday, and students who apply by then will get a decision Dec.11.

This year, outsiders will have to stay out of the process -- or have their efforts recorded in a publicly accessible database. If university employees interfere, they can be fired. If trustees meddle, they can be removed from the board by the governor.

The rules were put on paper by the Urbana-Champaign campus's Admissions Task Force, charged with redesigning the process after it was revealed that powerful people, including trustees and lawmakers, were holding sway over decisions. President B. Joseph White ordered the broad policy changes and directed task forces at all three campuses to figure out the details.

"One nice thing about the admissions report is that it empowers admissions officers and people like myself to say 'no,'" said Keith Marshall, associate provost for enrollment management. "We not only have the power to say 'no' to someone trying to exert influence, we have a responsibility to."

Under the new policies, students who are denied will be able to appeal if there is "new and compelling information." In past years, the option to appeal was not publicized, though some well-connected students were encouraged to do so as a backdoor way to get their decisions overturned.

The task force also wrote a new ethics code that states that the admissions process should be guided by "fairness to applicants, transparency of process, equality of access, privacy and responsiveness." The task force asked that it be widely publicized to campus employees and made part of orientation activities for admissions staff.

Mary Lynn Krauss, whose oldest daughter was denied admission to this fall's U. of I. freshman class, applauds the changes. She said it never occurred to the family that her daughter, a student at Neuqua Valley High School in Naperville, could appeal.

"Only a limited number of people knew about it. That was one more insult thrown at us. Everyone should be on the same playing field. They should have the same opportunity," Krauss said.

Her younger daughter, now a junior, will apply to colleges next year. "It's very good that all of this be upfront, out in the open, so that you can't have this underhanded, behind-closed-doors way of getting people in," Krauss said.

The Tribune in May first exposed the U. of I.'s system for tracking undergraduate applicants backed by trustees, lawmakers, donors and other powerful people. Clouted students were added to an internal list known as "Category I." In some cases, admissions officials were overruled and forced to admit subpar students.

The law school also tracked what it called "special interest" applicants, and the former dean said she was ordered by then-Chancellor Richard Herman to admit some of them. In exchange, Herman offered scholarship money to attract better students.

The new admissions rules build a firewall around the decision-making process designed to keep nonacademic concerns out.

Only an applicant, the student's parents or guidance counselor may communicate with admissions staff regarding an application. If anyone else tries to provide input or learn about the status of an application -- including other university employees, trustees, lawmakers and university lobbyists -- admissions officers are to explain the rules, then log the communication into the "Third-Party Inquiry Log," a database accessible to the public under the Freedom of Information Act.

Admissions staff members can add information to the database but cannot view the compiled list or extract information from it, so they don't know which applicants have influential sponsors.

Additionally, no recommendation letters or other communications from a sponsor will be kept in an applicant's file, including anything indicating that the student is to receive a General Assembly scholarship. Public documents obtained by the Tribune showed that in the past, lawmakers sometimes used the scholarships as a wedge to help get a student admitted.

The university's other two campuses in Chicago and Springfield also have new policies. All employees at the Springfield campus this week, for example, are to get an e-mail explaining what to say to third-party inquirers and how to log the inquiry.

In addition to the admissions policy changes, there has been a near-wholesale turnover of top university officials. Most of the trustees have been replaced, and the president and chancellor have resigned.

Joyce Smith, chief executive of the National Association for College Admission Counseling, said the U. of I.'s now-defunct admissions process for well-connected applicants was unusual in its "level and scope." The new board of trustees declared the end to Category I last month.

"For something to be organized and structured, that was totally out of bounds," Smith said.